Reports - What Do You Put In Or Leave Out?

[Guest]

I know we need to report to our parents on all areas of learning - but do you inform them only of the ELG's a child has achieved or include something that shows the ones they haven't ? We were thinking of some sort of column that would show which ones they had achieved and then a column which would show those their child was still working towards so that parents had a more rounded view of where there child was. We would then add a personal comment regarding the child's progress under each area of learning and a target for next year.

[Cait]

Ok sounds good. There have been several threads about reports recently, why not 'search forum posts' putting 'report' as your title search

[emmajess]

I personally prefer to let parents know what their child has achieved and what their next steps are, rather than having all the profile points in a format for everybody with the relevant ones ticked off and the gaps left of all the points left to achieve. Maybe it depends on the cohort or the intake of your school, but if children achieve a low number of scale points, it could be quite demoralising to look at all the others that they hadn't achieved rather than just celebrate those they have and pick out immediate next steps. If children rarely have this kind of profile score in your setting, then maybe having all the points in a form would be more appropriate - but I know that for my class and parents it would be quite negative in a number of cases. Parents are made aware in other ways of the full range of the profile, but I prefer this to presenting some parents and children with lots of empty boxes at the end of their first year at school.

[Guest]

We see parents regularly throughout the year and discuss each child's learning journal with them so at the end of the year we basically follow the guidelines from the NAA as here:-

 

What must be reported to parents, carers or guardians?

For children in year R:

■■ brief particulars of achievements in all subjects and other activities. Comments should be included for each of the six areas of learning, where appropriate

■■ comments on general progress

■■ arrangements for discussing the report.

 

For children at the end of year R:

■■ a written summary reporting progress against the early learning goals and the assessment scales.

 

Schools must offer parents, carers or guardians a reasonable opportunity to discuss the outcomes of the EYFS profile with their child’s teacher. This meeting should be within the term in which the EYFS profile has been completed. Teachers may wish to

consider making the child’s profile available to parents, carers or guardians as part of this discussion. If parents, carers or guardians ask to see a copy of their child’s profile, the school must make this available.

 

We have a box for all of the 6 areas and give the children a grade of excellent, good or support needed. We then give an overview of the year and each child's particular strength in each area. There is also a box for children and parents / carers to make a final comment.

 

Finally we have a box where we give a very personal overview of how the child has enjoyed the year in reception. Each report is only once side of A4 and is in exssence a summary as the parents / carers have had regualr feedback and been involved in the progress during the year.

 

sounds a bit sterile when I read this but so far parents have been happy with it.